Radical Pakistani Cleric Threatens Suicide Attacks in Capital

By SALMAN MASOOD

Published: April 7, 2007

A hard-line cleric said Friday that he was setting up a religious court here in the country's capital, and threatened suicide attacks if the government did not enact Islamic law and close down brothels and video stores within a month.

The announcement was made during Friday Prayer by Maulana Mohammad Abdul Aziz, the head cleric of the Lal Mosque who is known for his extremist and anti-American views. Mr. Aziz and his allies have stirred a national debate with their drive to impose Taliban-style rule in the capital, prompting protests by human rights advocates and political parties.

Mr. Aziz's remarks were the latest in a series of challenges by hard-line clerics to the authority of the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who is considered an ally of the United States and who has vowed to put Pakistan on the path to what he has called ''enlightened moderation.''

''Pakistan was created for an Islamic system,'' Mr. Aziz said. ''But the government, instead of implementing an Islamic system, is threatening us with a police operation,'' he said, referring to the government's warnings of a raid if the clerics took the law into their own hands.

Some critics of the government say it has buckled under pressure from the clerics, emboldening them. Others charge that the government has allowed the clerics a free hand in order to divert attention from the constitutional crisis that has roiled Pakistan since last month, when General Musharraf removed the country's chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who had taken on cases threatening the president's authority.

Pakistan officials, who deny such speculation, say they are monitoring the cleric situation closely.

On Thursday, the Lal Mosque's Web site was blocked. Last week, the government barred the transmission of an FM radio station set up by students at the mosque's madrassa, or religious school.

''The setting up of such courts is tantamount to questioning the writ of the government,'' Tariq Azeem Khan, the deputy state minister for information, said in an interview on Friday evening, referring to the cleric's announcement. ''We believe it is both illegal and un-Islamic. But we want to resolve the issue through dialogue.''

Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, the country's interior minister, echoed that sentiment as he spoke at a news conference on Friday. ''The law will take its own course,'' he said.

''What is the credibility of one man if he says he is going to enforce Shariah,'' or Islamic law, Mr. Sherpao said. Most of the ulemas, or religious scholars, have distanced themselves from the Lal Mosque clerics, he said.

Mr. Aziz and his brother Abdul Rashid Ghazi have emerged as vociferous opponents of General Musharraf. Since January, hundreds of female students from Jamia Hafsa, a religious seminary for girls affiliated with the Lal Mosque, have occupied a public children's library here and staged a sit-in to protest a government campaign to raze mosques built illegally on state-owned land. The government has balked at breaking up the library occupation, saying it fears a violent escalation.

Last week, female students from Jamia Hafsa kidnapped an alleged brothel owner from a neighborhood in Islamabad. The woman was released only after she gave a public confession.

Veiled students have also visited several video stores, urging their owners to close.

On Friday evening, dozens of students gathered in front of the mosque around a smoldering heap of Pakistani, Indian and English CDs and DVDs. ''These are all dirty movies,'' one said, claiming that they had been handed over to the students voluntarily by a local video store owner.

Owais Dar, 40, a video store owner in a nearby shopping mall, said he had not been approached by the madrassa students to close down his business, but that sales were already faltering. ''People don't feel that there is any law in the country,'' he said.

Photo: Burqa-clad students gathered on the roof of a religious school in Islamabad to watch other students burn CDs and DVDs they deemed offensive. (Photo by Aamir Qureshi/Agence France-Presse -- Getty Images)